Methods and devices for beam report transmission and receiving

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method, terminal device and apparatus for beam report transmission and a method, network node and apparatus for a beam report receiving. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method for beam report transmission may include dropping, in response to a collision between a beam report and another uplink control information, a lower-priority one of the beam report and the other uplink control information based on a predetermined priority rule defining a transmission priority of the beam report and the other uplink control information. With embodiments of the present disclosure, it is possible to provide a simple but efficient solution for addressing the collision.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The non-limiting and exemplary embodiments of the present disclosuregenerally relate to the field of wireless communication techniques, andmore particularly relate to a method, terminal device and apparatus forbeam report transmission and a method, network node and apparatus forbeam report receiving.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

New radio access system, which is also called as NR system or NRnetwork, is the next generation communication system. In Radio AccessNetwork (RAN) #71 meeting for the third generation Partnership Project(3GPP) working group, study of the NR system was approved. The NR systemwill consider frequency ranging up to 100 Ghz with an object of a singletechnical framework addressing all usage scenarios, requirements anddeployment scenarios defined in Technical Report TR 38.913, whichincludes requirements such as enhanced mobile broadband, massivemachine-type communications, and ultra-reliable and low latencycommunications.

In 3GPP RAN1 #90bis meeting, it was agreed that:

-   -   For non-grouping based beam reporting, the following report        parameters are supported:        -   The maximal number of configured transmission (Tx) beams for            beam measurement: K equals to 64        -   The maximal number of configured Tx beams to be reported in            one instance:    -   N_max=2, 4, where a subset of N (N⇐N_max where N=1, 2, 3, 4)        beams can be selected by the gNB and indicated to the UE (the        signaling mechanism is for further study)        -   Reporting differential L1-Reference Signal Received Power            (L1-RSRP) when multiple beams are reported in one reporting            instance. Reference is the largest L1-RSRP in that reporting            instance.        -   Bit-width: 7 bits for L1-RSRP ranging from −140 dBm to −44            dBm with 1 dB stepping size (analogous with long Term            Evolved (LTE)) and 4 bits for differential L1-RSRP.

Besides, it was also agreed in 3GPP RAN1 #90bis that:

-   -   For L1-RSRP and/or beam resource indicator (e.g. the indicator        of Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) or        Synchronization Signal Block (SSB)) reporting for beam        management, the following uplink (UL) channels are supported:        short Physical Uplink Control Channel (Short PUCCH, or S-PUCCH),        long PUCCH (L-PUCCH) and Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH).        For beam management on the above channels, the following        reporting types are supported        -   Periodic—supporting long PUCCH and short PUCCH        -   Semi-persistent—supporting long PUCCH, short PUCCH and PUSCH        -   Aperiodic—supporting PUSCH and short PUCCH

In addition to the beam report, Channel State Information (CSI) can alsobe transmitted on the long PUCCH, short PUCCH, and PUSCH. Therefore,beam reporting might have collision with CSI reporting.

In the LTE system, there is only one available PUCCH channel in one slotfor a terminal device like User Equipment (UE), while in NR system, UEcan support multiple PUCCHs for example, short PUCCH (⇐2 bit)+shortPUCCH (>2 bits), or short PUCCH format 2+long PUCCH format 3 in the sameslot for uplink control information (UCI) transmission.

In a beam reporting instance, UE can be configured to report N differentTx beams that can be received simultaneously, where N is configured bythe gNB, where N⇐Nmax. However, UE may report N or fewer beams in agiven reporting instance, which means that the actual reporting payloadmay vary based on UE's beam detection.

In the existing solution, the payload for beam reporting is uniformed toa given PUCCH format, and a default value is used for quantizing a beamRSRP in outage and additional padding bits can be used. In such a case,beam reporting may carry much less information payload than what isaccommodated by reporting channel resources.

In view of the above, there is a need for improved solution for beamreport transmission.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To this end, in the present disclosure, there is provided a new solutionfor beam reporting, to mitigate or at least alleviate at least part ofthe issues in the prior art.

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provideda method for beam report transmission. The method may comprise inresponse to a collision between a beam report and another uplink controlinformation, dropping a lower-priority one of the beam report and theother uplink control information based on a predetermined priority ruledefining a transmission priority of the beam report and the other uplinkcontrol information.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there isprovided a method for beam report receiving. The method may comprise inresponse to a collision between a beam report and another uplink controlinformation, receiving a higher-priority one of the beam report and theother uplink control information based on a predetermined priority ruledefining a transmission priority of the beam report and the other uplinkcontrol information.

According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provideda terminal device. The terminal device may comprise a processor,configured to, in response to a collision between a beam report andanother uplink control information, drop a lower-priority one of thebeam report and the other uplink control information based on apredetermined priority rule defining a transmission priority of the beamreport and the other uplink control information.

According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there isprovided a network node. The network node may comprise a processor,configured to, in response to a collision between a beam report andanother uplink control information, receive a higher-priority one of thebeam report and the other uplink control information based on apredetermined priority rule defining a transmission priority of the beamreport and the other uplink control information.

According to a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provideda terminal device. The terminal device may comprise a processor and amemory. The memory may be coupled with the processor and having programcodes therein, which, when executed on the processor, cause the terminaldevice to perform operations of the first aspect.

According to a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provideda network node. The network node may comprise a processor and a memory.The memory may be coupled with the processor and have program codestherein, which, when executed on the processor, cause the network nodeto perform operations of the second aspect.

According to a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, there isprovided a computer-readable storage media with computer program codesembodied thereon, the computer program codes configured to, whenexecuted, cause an apparatus to perform actions in the method accordingto any embodiment in the first aspect.

According to an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, there isprovided a computer-readable storage media with computer program codesembodied thereon, the computer program codes configured to, whenexecuted, cause an apparatus to perform actions in the method accordingto any embodiment in the second aspect.

According to a ninth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provideda computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage mediaaccording to the seventh aspect.

According to a tenth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provideda computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage mediaaccording to the eighth aspect.

With embodiments of the present disclosure, it is possible to provide asimple but efficient solution for addressing the collision.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other features of the present disclosure will become moreapparent through detailed explanation on the embodiments as illustratedin the embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings,throughout which like reference numbers represent same or similarcomponents and wherein:

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a flow chart of a method for beamreport transmission according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates uplink channels for beam reporting ;

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates uplink channels for CSI reporting;

FIGS. 4A to 4C schematically illustrate several example priority rulesdefining the transmission priority according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 5 schematically illustrates a flow chart of another method for beamreporting transmission according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 6 schematically illustrates a table of possible offloadingsolutions for difference cases according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 7 schematically illustrates a diagram of beam (BM) reporting andCSI reporting in two separately coded parts of PUCCH for beam reportingand CSI reporting according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 schematically illustrates a table of multiplexing strategies ofbeam reporting and Hybrid Automatic Repeat request (HARQ) according toan embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 schematically illustrates a diagram of BM reporting and HARQtransmission in two separately coded parts of PUCCH for beam reportingand CSI reporting according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 schematically illustrates resource selection rules of beamreporting based payload size according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 11 schematically illustrates resource selection rules of beamreporting based the number of reported beams according to an embodimentof the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 schematically illustrates a flow chart of a further method forbeam report transmission according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 13 schematically illustrates a diagram of example beam reportsegments according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 14 schematically illustrates a table of payload size of two beamreport segments according to the solution as described in FIG. 13;

FIG. 15 schematically illustrates an example transmission of two beamreport segments according an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 16 schematically illustrates another example transmission of twobeam report segments according an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 17 schematically illustrates a further example transmission of twobeam report segments according an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 18 schematically illustrates a diagram of other example beam reportsegments according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 19 schematically illustrates a table of payload size of two beamreport segments according to the solution as described in FIG. 18;

FIG. 20 schematically illustrates a diagram of further example beamreport segments according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 21 schematically illustrates an example transmission of two beamreport segments according an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 22 schematically illustrates a flow chart of a method for beamreport receiving according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 23 schematically illustrates a flow chart of another method forbeam report receiving according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 24 schematically illustrates a flow chart of a further method forbeam report receiving according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 25 schematically illustrates a block diagram of an apparatus forbeam report transmission according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 26 schematically illustrates a block diagram of an apparatus forbeam report receiving according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure; and

FIG. 27 schematically illustrates a simplified block diagram of anapparatus 2710 that may be embodied as or comprised in a network nodelike gNB, and an apparatus 2720 that may be embodied as or comprised ina terminal device like UE as described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, the solution as provided in the present disclosure will bedescribed in details through embodiments with reference to theaccompanying drawings. It should be appreciated that these embodimentsare presented only to enable those skilled in the art to betterunderstand and implement the present disclosure, not intended to limitthe scope of the present disclosure in any manner.

In the accompanying drawings, various embodiments of the presentdisclosure are illustrated in block diagrams, flow charts and otherdiagrams. Each block in the flowcharts or blocks may represent a module,a program, or a part of code, which contains one or more executableinstructions for performing specified logic functions, and in thepresent disclosure, a dispensable block is illustrated in a dotted line.Besides, although these blocks are illustrated in particular sequencesfor performing the steps of the methods, as a matter of fact, they maynot necessarily be performed strictly according to the illustratedsequence. For example, they might be performed in reverse sequence orsimultaneously, which is dependent on natures of respective operations.It should also be noted that block diagrams and/or each block in theflowcharts and a combination of thereof may be implemented by adedicated hardware-based system for performing specifiedfunctions/operations or by a combination of dedicated hardware andcomputer instructions.

Generally, all terms used in the claims are to be interpreted accordingto their ordinary meaning in the technical field, unless explicitlydefined otherwise herein. All references to “a/an/the/said [element,device, component, means, step, etc.]” are to be interpreted openly asreferring to at least one instance of said element, device, component,means, unit, step, etc., without excluding a plurality of such devices,components, means, units, steps, etc., unless explicitly statedotherwise. Besides, the indefinite article “a/an” as used herein doesnot exclude a plurality of such steps, units, modules, devices, andobjects, and etc.

Additionally, in a context of the present disclosure, user equipment(UE) may refer to a terminal, a Mobile Terminal (MT), a subscriberstation, a portable subscriber station, Mobile Station (MS), or anAccess Terminal (AT), and some or all of the functions of the UE, theterminal, the MT, the SS, the portable subscriber station, the MS, orthe AT may be included. Furthermore, in the context of the presentdisclosure, the term “BS” may represent, e.g., a node B (NodeB or NB),an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), gNB (next generation Node B), a radioheader (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, or a low power nodesuch as a femto, a pico, and so on.

In the present disclosure, there are proposed new solutions for beamreport transmission and receiving, which could mitigate or at leastalleviate at least part of the issues in the prior art. Hereinafter,reference will be further made to FIGS. 1 to 27 to describe thesolutions as proposed in the present disclosure in details. It shall beappreciated that the following embodiments are given only forillustrative purposes and the present disclosure is not limited thereto.It shall be also appreciated that hereinafter, different aspects of thepresent disclosure might be described separately but these aspects canbe combined as well.

Reference is first made to FIG. 1, which illustrates a flow chart of amethod 100 for beam report transmission according to an embodiment ofthe present disclosure. The method 100 can be performed at a terminaldevice, for example UE, or other like terminal devices.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, in step 101, in response to a collisionbetween a beam report and another uplink control information, alower-priority one of the beam report and the other uplink controlinformation is dropped based on a predetermined priority rule definingtransmission priority of the beam report and the other uplink controlinformation.

As mentioned in background, for beam management, short PUCCH, long PUCCHand PUSCH are all supported: Meanwhile other uplink control informationlike the CSI can also be transmitted on short PUCCH, long PUCCH, andPUSCH. Thus, there might be a transmission collision between beam reportand the other uplink control information like CSI. Hereinafter, forillustrative purposes, CSI will be taken as an example, however theskilled in the art can readily know that the present disclosed it notlimited thereto, any uplink control information that might have acollision with the beam report may also benefit from the solutionprovided herein.

For illustrative purpose, FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 illustrate tables of uplinkchannels for beam reporting and uplink channels for CSI reporting,respectively. From FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, it can be seen that there is apotential probability that the beam reporting has a collision with CSIreporting since they can both be transmitted on long PUCCH, short PUCCH,or PUSCH. In such a case, the payload size of beam report and the otheruplink control information might be too large to be carried by areporting channel. In the present disclosure, it is proposed to adopt,when such a collision occurs, a dropping strategy to drop at least partof them. For example, as illustrated in step 101, UE may drop alower-priority one of the beam report and CSI based on a predeterminedpriority rule.

The predetermined priority rule may define transmission priority of thebeam report and the other uplink control information (for example CSI).With reference to the transmission priority, UE may determine which oneof the beam report and the other uplink control information can bedropped.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the predetermined priorityrule may define the transmission priority based on timing requirement.The stricter the information requires the timing, the higher thetransmission priority. For example, considering time requirements ofthese types of information, it may determine the transmission priorityof A (aperiodic reporting information), S (semi-persistent reportinginformation) and P (periodic reporting information) as A>S>P. Inaddition, it may further specify in each of A, S, and P, the beamreporting has a higher transmission priority than CSI reporting.

For illustrative purpose, FIG. 4A illustrates an example timing-firstpriority rule, which defines an order of transmission priority ofvarious types of the beam report and CSI, i.e., {A>S>P , BM>CSI}. Asillustrated in FIG. 4, different cases of transmission collisions aregiven, wherein the first row indicates a transmission collision on shortPUCCH (S-PUCCH), the second row indicates a transmission collision onlong PUCCH (L-PUCCH) and the third row indicates a transmissioncollision on PUSCH, and wherein “P” means periodic reportinginformation, “S” means semi-persistent reporting information, “A” meansaperiodic reporting information; “CSI” means channel state information,“BM” means beam report, “I” or “II” means the type of CSI defined in NRsystem, “WB” means the frequency granularity of wideband or partialband, “SB” means the frequency granularity of subband, “P1” means Part 1of CSI information.

As further illustrated in FIG. 4A, for the transmission collision onS-PUCCH, the transmission priority may be in an order of A-BM,A-WB-I-CSI, S-BM, S-WB-CSI, P-BM, and P-WB-I-CSI; for the transmissioncollision on L-PUCCH, the transmission priority may be in an order ofS-BM, S-WB-I-CSI, P-BM, S-II-CSI-P1, S-SB-I-CSI, and P-WB-I-CSI; for thetransmission collision on PUSCH, the transmission priority may be in anorder of A-BM (aperiodic beam reporting) , A-CSI (aperiodic CSIreporting), S-BM (semi-persistent beam reporting), and S-CSI(semi-persistent CSI reporting).

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the predeterminedpriority rule may defines the transmission priority based on functionrequirement, for example BM>CSI or CSI>BM, which is dependent onfunction requirements of the communication system. In addition, it ispossible to further set an internal priority rule defining transmissionpriority for different types of one or each of the beam report and theother uplink control information. For example, for beam reporting, itmay determines the transmission priority of A-BM, S-BM and P-BM(periodic beam reporting) as {A-BM>S-BM>P-BM}. For another example, forCSI reporting, it may determine the transmission priority of A-CSI,S-CSI and P-CSI (periodic CSI reporting) as {A-CSI>S-CSI>P-CSI}.

For illustrative purpose, FIGS. 4B and 4C illustrate examplefunction-first priority rules, each of which defines an order oftransmission priority of various types of the beam report and CSI.

Similarly to FIG. 4A, FIG. 4B illustrates different cases oftransmission collisions on S-PUCCH, L-PUCCH and PUSCH respectively, butFIG. 4B illustrates a function-first priority instead of a timing-firstpriority. As illustrated, BM reporting has a higher transmissionpriority than CSI reporting, i.e., BM >CSI. Especially, for thetransmission collision on S-PUCCH, the transmission priority may be inan order of A-BM, S-BM, P-BM, A-WB-I-CSI, S-WB-CSI, and P-WB-I-CSI; forthe transmission collision on L-PUCCH, the transmission priority may bein an order of S-BM, P-BM, S-WB-I-CSI, S-II-CSI-P1, S-SB-I-CSI, andP-WB-I-CSI; for the transmission collision on PUSCH, the transmissionpriority may be in an order of A-BM, S-BM, A-CSI, and S-CSI.

Reference is further made to FIG. 4C, which illustrates anotherfunction-first priority rules in different cases of transmissioncollisions on S-PUCCH, L-PUCCH and PUSCH respectively. Different fromFIG. 4B, CSI reporting has a higher transmission priority than BMreporting, i.e., CSI>BM. Thus, in FIG. 4C, for the transmissioncollision on S-PUCCH, the transmission priority may be in an order ofA-WB-I-CSI, S-WB-CSI, P-WB-I-CSI, A-BM, S-BM, and P-BM; for thetransmission collision on L-PUCCH, the transmission priority may be inan order of S-WB-I-CSI, S-II-CSI-P1, S-SB-I-CSI, P-WB-I-CSI, S-BM, andP-BM; for the transmission collision on PUSCH, the transmission prioritymay be in an order of A-CSI, S-CSI, A-BM, and S-BM.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the above priority rule can bea predetermined rule, which is known by both UE and gNB. In addition, itcan also be used in a more flexible way. For example, the gNB may informthe UE of the priority rule to be used by setting a predetermined bit inDCI. For example, “0” may indicate a timing-first priority rule asillustrated in FIG. 4A, “1” may indicate a function-first priority ruleas illustrated in FIG. 4C. In addition, the UE may also initiate apriority rule change by sending a beam failure recovery request (BFRQ)to the gNB so that the priority rule is changed to the rule asillustrated in FIG. 4B.

It shall be noted that the present disclosure is not limited to theabove example priority rule. In some other embodiments of the presentdisclosure, it is possible to rank various types of information in areverse order, which means the higher the transmission priority is, thelower the information is ranked in the order. Thus, the less important(lower transmission priority) information type will be ranked higher andthe dropping operation will start from the information ranked higher. Itshall also be noted that the manner for indicating priority rule is alsogiven for illustrative purposes, and the present invention is notlimited thereto.

By means of dropping a lower-priority part, the transmission collisionbetween the beam reporting and another uplink control information can beaddressed in a simply but efficient way.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, there is further providedanother way to address the collision, which will described hereinafterwith reference to FIG. 5. The method 500 can be performed at a terminaldevice, for example UE, or other like terminal devices.

FIG. 5 schematically illustrates a flow chart of another method for beamreport transmission according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 5, in step 501, UE checks if there isany uplink transmission resource available in predetermined resourceset(s) for addressing the collision. If there is an uplink transmissionresource for addressing the collision, in step 502, the beam report andthe other uplink control information can be multiplexed on the uplinktransmission resource available for addressing the collision. Thus,unlike the solution in FIG. 1, in the solution as proposed in FIG. 5,multiplexing strategy is adopted for the beam report and the otheruplink control information like CSI to address the collision. In otherword, the collided information can be offloaded to other availabletransmission resource.

Regarding multiplexing of the beam report and the other uplink controlinformation like CSI, multiplexing choices may vary for different cases.For example, the beam report and the other uplink control informationcan be multiplexed in two separately coded parts on PUCCH, i.e., thecollided information can be offloaded onto two separately coded parts onPUCCH. As another example, the beam report and the other uplink controlinformation can be multiplexed on PUSCH; in other words, the collidedinformation can be offloaded onto PUSCH. If there is more than onemultiplexing choice, the multiplexing can be selected further based on apredetermined selection priority. The priority can be implicitly decidedat UE according the payload size of UCI among available report resourcespredefined by the gNB, e.g., PUSCH>PUCCH. In addition, the selectionpriority can also be configured semi-statically through a higher-layersignaling (Media Access Control (MAC) control element (CE) or RadioResource Control (RRC) signaling) or dynamically indicated from anetwork node, through for example DCI.

For illustrative purposes, FIG. 6 illustrates possible offloadingsolutions for difference cases. As illustrated, if the collision occurson short PUCCH, it is possible to offload the collided information ontotwo separately coded parts of long PUCCH or onto PUSCH; if the collisionoccurs on long PUCCH, it is possible to offload the collided informationonto two separately coded parts of another long PUCCH accommodatinglarger payload size (with format changed from for example format 3 toformat 4), or onto PUSCH; if the collision occurs on PUSCH, there is noavailable resource to offload the collided information. In such a case,it may for example adopt a dropping strategy as described with referenceto FIGS. 1 to 4.

For illustrative purposes, FIG. 7 illustrates two separately coded partsof PUCCH for beam report and CSI transmission. As illustrated in FIG. 7,the BM (beam) reporting and the CSI reporting, as two informationblocks, could be separately coded with possibly two CRC blocks andtransmitted as two different coded parts.

In addition, it shall be noted that in addition to the transmissioncollision on the PUSCH, it is also possible to combine the droppingstrategy of FIG. 1 with the multiplexing strategy as described herein,when no uplink transmission resource is available for addressing thecollision. In other words, when there is transmission collision betweenthe beam report and another uplink control information, it may firstcheck, before dropping a lower-priority part, if there is any uplinktransmission resource available in preconfigured resource set(s) foraddressing the collision. If there is such an uplink transmissionresource, it may multiplex the beam report and the other uplink controlinformation onto the uplink transmission resource; if there is no suchuplink transmission resource, the dropping strategy is adopted to drop alower-priority one of the beam report and the other uplink controlinformation based on the predetermined priority rule.

In a further aspect of the present disclosure, there is further provideda solution of multiplexing the beam reporting with Hybrid AutomaticRepeat request (HARQ). The multiplexing between the beam reporting andthe HARQ can be performed on different PUCCH channels in the same slot,the same coded part in the same PUCCH channel, or different coded partsin the same PUCCH channel. The specific multiplexing mode to be used canbe indicated by means of a resource configuration indicator from thenetwork node.

For illustrative purposes, FIG. 8 illustrates an example multiplexingstrategy between beam report (BM) and HARQ. In FIG. 8, there are givensix possible values of resource configuration indicator, including“000,” “001,” “011,” “010,” “100,” “101.” For the indicator value “000”,it denotes that the beam reporting (including periodic, semi-persistent,and aperiodic beam reporting) and HARQ may be multiplexed on two shortPUCCHs in a time division multiplexing (TDM) mode. For the indicatorvalue “001,” it denotes that the beam reporting (including periodic,semi-persistent, and aperiodic beam reporting) and the HARQ can bemultiplexed in two separately coded parts on a short PUCCH, for examplePart 1 for HARQ, and Part 2 for BM. For the indicator value “011”, itdenotes that the beam reporting (including periodic and semi-persistentbeam reporting) and HARQ may be multiplexed on a short PUCCH and a longPUCCH in a time division multiplexing (TDM) mode. For the indicatorvalue “010”, it denotes that the beam reporting (including periodic, andsemi-persistent beam reporting) and the HARQ on two separately codedparts on a long PUCCH. For the indicator value “100,” it denotes thatthe beam reporting (including semi-persistent and aperiodic beamreporting) and the HARQ can be carried on PUSCH. For the indicator value“101” it denotes that the beam reporting (including semi-persistent, andaperiodic beam reporting) can be carried on PUSCH and the HARQ can becarried on PUCCH in the same slot.

FIG. 9 illustrates two separately coded parts of PUCCH for beamreporting and HARQ. As illustrated in FIG. 9, for indicator value “001”and “010”, the BM reporting and the HARQ, as two information blocks,could be separately coded with possibly two CRC blocks and transmittedas two different coded parts.

In a still further aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided anew resource selection manner for beam report. As illustrated in FIG. 2,for each type of beam reporting, there is more than one availablechannel and in such a case, it may select an uplink transmissionresource for the beam reporting based on a predetermined resourceselection rule. The predetermined selection rule may be based on eitherthe payload size or the number of reported beams.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the predetermined selectionrule may be based on the payload size. For example, for the beamreporting with a small payload size, it may use Shot PUCCH, for the beamreporting with a medium payload size, it may adopt long PUCCH, and forthe beam reporting with a large payload size, it may use the PUSCH.

FIG. 10 illustrates example resource selection rues based on the payloadsize wherein the payload size L1 to L6 meets Li<L2<L3<L4<L5 <L6. FromFIG. 10, it is clear that P1 is a smaller payload range, P1 is a mediumpayload range, and P3 is a larger payload range. For the payload in P1,a short PUCCH may be selected for beam reporting; for the payload in P2,a long PUCCH may be selected for beam reporting; for the payload in P3,a PUSCH may be selected for beam reporting. Besides, it can also be seenthat there is an overlapping range L2-L3 between P1 and P2 and anotheroverlapping range L4-L5 between P2 and P3. Therefore, for the payloadfalling in such overlapping ranges, there is more than one resourceselection option. In such a case, the gNB may indicate a selection orderof uplink transmission resources for beam report transmission by meansof semi-statically higher layer (RRC signaling or MAC CE) or dynamicalindication like DCI.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the predeterminedselection rule may be based on the number of reported beams. Forexample, for the number of reported beams in a first number range, itmay use a short PUCCH; for the number of reported beams in anothernumber range, it may further adopt a long PUCCH, or a PSUCH which isdependent on UE capability.

For illustrative purposes, FIG. 11 illustrates example resourceselection rues based on the number of reported beams, wherein if N=<2,UE may use a short PUCCH, and if N<=4, UE may select long PUCCH or PUSCHbased on its capability. Thus, if there are one or two beams to bereported, there might options including, short PUCCH and at least one oflong PUCCH and PUSCH; if there is 3 or 4 beams to be reported, there areat least options including long PUCCH and PUSCH. In such a case, thepredetermined selection rule may further define a selection order ofuplink transmission resources for beam reporting transmission so thatthe UE could select one reporting channel from these available reportingchannels. For example, there might be a default selection order at UE:short PUCCH>PUSCH>long PUCCH. In addition, the selection order can alsobe configured by semi-statically higher-layer (such as MAC CE or RRCsignaling) or dynamically indicated by means of DCI.

In a yet further aspect of the present disclosure, there is furtherprovided another beam report transmission solution to address thetransmission resource waste problem. Next reference will be made to FIG.12 to describe it in details.

FIG. 12 schematically illustrates a flow chart of a method 1200 of beamreporting transmission according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The method 1200 can be performed at a terminal device, forexample UE, or other like terminal devices.

As illustrated in FIG. 12, in step 1201, a first beam report segment istransmitted, wherein the first beam report segment contains an identityfor a first beam, a channel quality indication for the first beam and asubsequent segment indication information for indicating whether asubsequent beam report segment is present or not. Then in step 1202, atleast one subsequent beam report segment containing information on atleast one subsequent beam is transmitted only if the subsequent segmentindication information indicates that the subsequent beam report segmentis present. Therefore, in the present disclosure, it is proposed todivide a beam report into at least two segments. The first segment maycontain subsequent segment indication information which can indicatewhether a subsequent beam report segment is present or not and thesecond beam report segment is transmitted only if there are subsequentbeam report segments. In this way, the subsequent segment is transmittedonly if required, instead of padding bits, and thus the transmissionresource can be utilized in a more efficient way. Furthermore, in caseof only the first segment being transmitted, the UE may choose adifferent PUCCH format and/or coding rate so as to transmit the firstsegment more compactly and reliably. Hereinafter, reference will be madeto FIGS. 13 to 21 to described server specific implementations asprovided herein.

FIG. 13 schematically illustrates a diagram of two example beam reportsegments according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Asillustrated in FIG. 13, the beam report is divided into two segments,i.e., segment 1 and segment 2. The segment 1 contains beam ID 1 (6 bits)for a first beam (for example the first strongest beam), and its RSRPvalue RSRP1 (7 bits) and differential RSRP value RSRP 2(4 bits) for thesecond beam (for example, the second strongest beam). For RSRP 2, inaddition to fifteen values of 4 bits for the differential RSRP, theremaining value can be used to indicate an outage of beam RSRP, whereinthe outage means that a differential RSRP value is larger than 16*stepping size. If the value of 4 bits of RSRP2 represents a regulardifferential value, it means there is subsequent beam report segment; onthe contrast, if its value of 4 bits represents an outage, no subsequentsegment will be transmitted. Segment 2 may contain beam IDs for thereported beams except the first beam and the different RSRP valuesexcept those already contained within segment 1. The dashed line ofsegment 2 means that unlike segment 1, segment 2 might be absent, whichis dependent on the value of RSRP 2 contained in segment 1.

FIG. 14 illustrates a table of payload size of two beam report segmentsaccording to the solution as described in FIG. 13. The total payloadsize of segment 1 and segment 2 is similar to that of the existingsolution since there is no added any addition bit; however since segment2 might be not transmitted, the transmission resource might be reduced.

It shall be noted that the two beam report segments can be transmittedin the same reporting channels or in different reporting channels. Forexample, segment 1 can be transmitted on short PDCCH, and segment 2 canbe transmitted on long PDCCH as illustrated in FIG. 15. As anotherexample, the two beam report segments can also be transmitted on longPDCCH as illustrated in FIG. 16.

In addition, on the same reporting channels, the two beam reportsegments can also be transmitted in the same coded part; alternatively,they may also be transmitted in separately coded parts in the samereporting channel. As illustrated in FIG. 17, segment 1 can betransmitted in a first information block and segment 2 can betransmitted in a second information block, wherein the first and secondinformation blocks are separately coded with two CRCs. Resourceallocation for segment 1 can be configured by the gNB through a higherlayer signaling. Resource allocation for segment 2 can be dynamicallyindicated by the gNB through DCI, which may use a resource selected froma predefined uplink resource set.

FIG. 18 schematically illustrates a diagram of other example beam reportsegments according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Differentfrom that illustrated in FIG. 13, RSRP 2 is not contained in segment 1to indicate the outage; instead, one new bit “a” is contained toindicate whether there is subsequent segment. For example, “0” is usedto indicate no subsequent segment; if “a” bit is “0”, segment 2 will notbe transmitted.

FIG. 19 illustrates the payload size of two beam report segmentsaccording to the solution as described in FIG. 28. The total payloadsize of segment 1 and segment 2 is one bit more than that of theexisting solution due to a newly added bit a; however since segment 2might be not transmitted, the transmission resource might be reduced aswell.

FIG. 20 schematically illustrates a diagram of further example beamreport segments according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.Different from that illustrated in FIGS. 12 and 18, the number of thebeams to be reported (these beams not in outage) is contained in segment1 to indicate the number of subsequent segments. If the number of beamsis zero, it means no subsequent segment, if the number of beams islarger than 1, it means the presence of subsequent segment. Thesesegments can be transmitted on the same reporting resources, as separatesegments, for example on long PUCCH as illustrated in FIG. 21.

It shall be noted that although some aspects or embodiments of thepresent disclosure are described separately but they can also becombined together to form a new solution; on the other hand, someaspects or embodiments of the present disclosure are described incombination with other aspects or embodiments, but they can also beimplemented separately as a standalone solution.

Hereinbefore, solutions for beam report transmission on the terminaldevice side are described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 21 and next,solutions for beam report receiving on the network side will bedescribed with reference to FIGS. 22 to 24.

FIG. 22 schematically illustrates a flow chart of a method for beamreport receiving according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.The method 2200 can be performed at a network node, for example gNB, orother like network nodes.

As illustrated in FIG. 22, in step 2201, gNB may receive, in response toa collision between a beam report and another uplink controlinformation, a higher-priority one of the beam report and the otheruplink control information based on a predetermined priority ruledefining a transmission priority of the beam report and the other uplinkcontrol information. When a collision between a beam report and anotheruplink control information is present, the gNB can use the samepredetermined priority rule as that in UE to determine which one of thebeam report and the other uplink control information is dropped andwhich one of them is transmitted. In such a way, only thehigher-priority one of the beam report and the other uplink controlinformation will be received by gNB.

Similar to the predetermined priority rule in the terminal device, thepredetermined priority rule at the gNB may define the transmissionpriority based on either timing requirement or function requirement.Moreover, the predetermined priority may further include an internaltransmission priority configured for different types of one or each ofthe beam report and the other uplink control information. The priorityrules used in the terminal device and the network node are exactly thesame and thus for details about the priority rule, one can refer todescription with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4C.

FIG. 23 schematically illustrates a flow chart of another method forbeam report receiving according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The method 2300 can be performed at a network node, forexample gNB, or other like network nodes.

As illustrated in FIG. 23, in step 2301, before receiving uplink controlinformation, gNB checks if there is any uplink transmission resourceavailable in—predetermined resource set(s) for addressing the collision.If there is an uplink transmission resource for addressing thecollision, in step 2302, the gNB can receive the beam report and theother uplink control information on the uplink transmission resourceavailable for addressing the collision.

Thus, unlike the solution in FIG. 22, in the solution as proposed inFIG. 23, the gNB first determines whether a multiplexing strategy isadopted for the beam report and the other uplink control information atthe terminal device to address the collision, if yes, the gNB willreceive the beam report and the other uplink control information on theavailable uplink transmission resource.

Regarding multiplexing of the beam report and the other uplink controlinformation like CSI, multiplexing choices may vary for different casesas described with reference to FIG. 6. Thus, the uplink transmissionresource carrying the beam report and the other uplink controlinformation may include any of Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH);and Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH). In addition, the beam reportand the other uplink control information can be carried in twoseparately coded parts on PUCCH, as also illustrated in FIG. 6. If thereis more than one multiplexing choice, the uplink transmission resourcecarrying the beam report and the other uplink control information may bedetermined based on a predetermined selection priority similar to thatin the terminal device.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, the beam report receivingmay further include receiving the beam report and Hybrid AutomaticRepeat request (HARQ) on/in any of: different reporting channels; thesame coded part on the same reporting channel; and different coded partson the same reporting channels. In other words, the gNB may receive themultiplexed beam reporting and HARQ. For details about the multiplexingstrategy of the beam reporting and HARQ, please refer to the descriptionwith reference to FIGS. 8 and 9.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, in case of beam reportreceiving, the method may further include determining, frompreconfigured resource set(s), an uplink transmission resource for thebeam report based a predetermined selection rule. The predeterminedselection may be based on any of the payload size or the number ofreported beams. If there is more than one reporting resource option, theuplink transmission resource for the beam report can be furtherdetermined based on a selection order of uplink transmission resourcesfor beam report transmission. By means of such a selection order, thegNB may determine the uplink transmission resource used by the terminaldevice for beam report transmission and receiving the beam report on theuplink transmission resource.

FIG. 24 schematically illustrates a flow chart of a further method forbeam report receiving according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The method 2400 can be performed at a network node, forexample gNB, or other like network nodes.

As illustrated in FIG. 24, first in step 2401, the gNB may receive afirst beam report segment containing an identity for a first beam, achannel quality indication for the first beam and a subsequent segmentindication information for indicating whether a subsequent beam reportsegment is present or not. Then, if the gNB detects that the subsequentsegment indication information indicates that the subsequent beam reportsegment is present, the gNB may receive at least one subsequent beamreport segment containing information on at least one subsequent beam.In other words, the first segment will be decoded before the segment 2,and the segment 2 is decoded only when the subsequent segment indicationinformation indicates the presence of the subsequent segment.

As described with reference to FIG. 13, the subsequent segmentindication information can be indicated by a predetermined value of achannel quality indication for a subsequent beam. As also described withreference to FIGS. 18 and 20, the subsequent segment indicationinformation is indicated by a predetermined bit. The predetermine bitcan be a single bit simply indicating whether there is subsequentsegment or not (see FIG. 18), or several bits (for example 2 bits)indicating the number of the subsequent segments (see FIG. 20).

Hereinabove, embodiments of the method of a beam report receiving aredescribed in brief hereinbefore with reference to FIGS. 22 to 24.However, it can be understood that operations at the terminal device arecorresponding to those at the network node and thus for some details ofoperations, one may refer to description with reference to FIGS. 1 to21.

FIG. 25 further schematically illustrates a block diagram of anapparatus for beam report transmission according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure. The apparatus 2500 can be performed at a terminaldevice, for example UE, or other like terminal devices.

As illustrated in FIG. 25, the apparatus 2500 may include an informationdropping module 2501, which can be configured to drop, in response to acollision between a beam report and another uplink control information,a lower-priority one of the beam report and the other uplink controlinformation based on a predetermined priority rule defining atransmission priority of the beam report and the other uplink controlinformation.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the predetermined priorityrule defines the transmission priority based on either timingrequirement or function requirement.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the predeterminedpriority rule may further include an internal transmission priorityconfigured for different types of one or each of the beam report and theother uplink control information.

In a further embodiment of the present disclosure, the apparatus 2500may further include: a resource checking module 2502 and a transmissionmultiplexing module 2503. The resource checking module may be configuredto check, before the dropping, if there is any uplink transmissionresource available in a preconfigured resource set for addressing thecollision. The transmission multiplexing module 2503 may be configuredto multiplex, if there is an uplink transmission resource available foraddressing the collision, the beam report and the other uplink controlinformation on the uplink transmission resource.

In a still further embodiment of the present disclosure, themultiplexing of the beam report and the other uplink control informationmay include any selection of: multiplexing the beam report and the otheruplink control information in two separately coded parts on PhysicalUplink Control Channel (PUCCH); and multiplexing the beam report and theother uplink control information on Physical Uplink Shared Channel(PUSCH).

In a yet further embodiment of the present disclosure, the multiplexingis selected based on a predetermined selection priority.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the transmissionmultiplexing module 2503 may be further configured to multiplex the beamreport with Hybrid Automatic Repeat request (HARQ) on/in any of:different PUCCH channels in the same slot; the same coded part in thesame PUCCH channel; and different coded parts in the same PUCCH channel.

In a further embodiment of the present disclosure, the apparatus 2500may further include a resource selection module 2504 configured toselect, from a preconfigured resource set, an uplink transmissionresource for the beam report based a predetermined selection ruleregarding any of the payload size or the number of reported beams.

In a still further embodiment of the present disclosure, thepredetermined selection rule may further define a selection order ofuplink transmission resources for beam report transmission.

In a yet further embodiment of the present disclosure, in case of beamreport transmission, the apparatus 2500 may further include a firstsegment transmission module 2505 and a second segment transmissionmodule 2506. The first segment transmission module 2505 can beconfigured to transmit a first beam report segment containing anidentity for a first beam, a channel quality indication for the firstbeam and a subsequent segment indication information for indicatingwhether a subsequent beam report segment is present or not. The secondsegment transmission module 2506 can be configured to transmit, only ifthe subsequent segment indication information indicates that thesubsequent beam report segment is present, at least one subsequent beamreport segment containing information on at least one subsequent beam.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the subsequent segmentindication information may be indicated by a predetermined value of achannel quality indication for a subsequent beam.

In a further embodiment of the present disclosure, the subsequentsegment indication information may be indicated by a predetermined bit.

In a still further embodiment of the present disclosure, the first beamreport segment and the at least one subsequent segment may betransmitted on/in any of: different reporting channels; the same codedpart on the same reporting channel; and different coded parts on thesame reporting channels.

FIG. 26 schematically illustrates a block diagram of an apparatus forbeam report receiving according to a further embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The apparatus 2600 can be performed at a network node, forexample gNB, or other like network nodes.

As illustrated in FIG. 26, the apparatus 2600 may include a controlinformation receiving module 2601, which can be configured to receive,in response to a collision between a beam report and another uplinkcontrol information, a higher-priority one of the beam report and theother uplink control information based on a predetermined priority ruledefining a transmission priority of the beam report and the other uplinkcontrol information.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the predetermined priorityrule may define the transmission priority based on either timingrequirement or function requirement.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the predeterminedpriority may further include an internal transmission priorityconfigured for different types of one or each of the beam report and theother uplink control information.

In a further embodiment of the present disclosure, the apparatus 2600may further include resource checking module 2602 which is configured tocheck, before the receiving, if there is any uplink transmissionresource available in a preconfigured resource set for addressing thecollision. The information receiving module 2601 may be configured toreceive, if there is an uplink transmission resource available in apreconfigured resource set for addressing the collision, the beam reportand the other uplink control information on the uplink transmissionresource.

In a still further embodiment of the present disclosure, the uplinktransmission resource may include any of: Physical Uplink ControlChannel (PUCCH); and Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH).

In a yet further embodiment of the present disclosure, the uplinktransmission resource carrying the beam report and the other uplinkcontrol information may be determined based on a predetermined selectionpriority.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the informationreceiving module 2601 may be further configured to receive the beamreport and Hybrid Automatic Repeat request (HARQ) on/in any of:different reporting channels; the same coded part on the same reportingchannel; and different coded parts on the same reporting channels.

In a further embodiment of the present disclosure, in case of beamreport receiving, the apparatus 2600 may further include a resourcedetermination module 2603 determining, from a preconfigured resourceset, an uplink transmission resource for the beam report based apredetermined selection rule regarding any of the payload size; or thenumber of reported beams.

In a still further embodiment of the present disclosure, thepredetermined selection rule may further define a selection order ofuplink transmission resources for beam report transmission.

In a yet further embodiment of the present disclosure, the apparatus2600 may further include a first segment receiving module 2604 and asecond receiving module 2605. The first segment receiving module 2604may be configured to receive a first beam report segment containing anidentity for a first beam, a channel quality indication for the firstbeam and a subsequent segment indication information for indicatingwhether a subsequent beam report segment is present or not. A secondsegment receiving module 2605 may be configured to receive, only if thesubsequent segment indication information indicates that the subsequentbeam report segment is present, at least one subsequent beam reportsegment containing information on at least one subsequent beam.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the subsequent segmentindication information may be indicated by a predetermined value of achannel quality indication for a subsequent beam.

In a further embodiment of the present disclosure, the subsequentsegment indication information may be indicated by a predetermined bit.

In a still further embodiment of the present disclosure, the first beamreport segment and the at least one subsequent segment may be receivedon/in any of different reporting channels; the same coded part on thesame reporting channel; and different coded parts on the same reportingchannels.

Hereinbefore, apparatuses 2500 and 2600 are described with reference toFIGS. 25 and 26 in brief. It can be noted that the apparatuses 2500 and2600 may be configured to implement functionalities as described withreference to FIGS. 1 to 24. Therefore, for details about the operationsof modules in these apparatuses, one may refer to those descriptionsmade with respect to the respective steps of the methods with referenceto FIGS. 1 to 24.

It is further noted that components of the apparatuses 2500 and 2600 maybe embodied in hardware, software, firmware, and/or any combinationthereof. For example, the components of apparatuses 2500 and 2600 may berespectively implemented by a circuit, a processor or any otherappropriate selection device.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the aforesaid examples areonly for illustration not limitation and the present disclosure is notlimited thereto; one can readily conceive many variations, additions,deletions and modifications from the teaching provided herein and allthese variations, additions, deletions and modifications fall theprotection scope of the present disclosure.

In addition, in some embodiment of the present disclosure, apparatuses2500 and 2600 may include at least one processor. The at least oneprocessor suitable for use with embodiments of the present disclosuremay include, by way of example, both general and special purposeprocessors already known or developed in the future. Apparatuses 2500and 2600 may further include at least one memory. The at least onememory may include, for example, semiconductor memory devices, e.g.,RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices. The at least onememory may be used to store program of computer executable instructions.The program can be written in any high-level and/or low-level compliableor interpretable programming languages. In accordance with embodiments,the computer executable instructions may be configured, with the atleast one processor, to cause apparatuses 2500 and 2600 to at leastperform operations according to the method as discussed with referenceto FIGS. 1 to 24 respectively.

FIG. 27 further illustrates a simplified block diagram of an apparatus2710 that may be embodied as or comprised in a network node like a basestation (gNB) in a wireless network and an apparatus 2720 that may beembodied as or comprised in a terminal device like UE as describedherein.

The apparatus 2710 comprises at least one processor 2711, such as a dataprocessor (DP) and at least one memory (MEM) 2712 coupled to theprocessor 2711. The apparatus 2710 may further include a transmitter TXand receiver RX 2713 coupled to the processor 2711, which may beoperable to communicatively connect to the apparatus 2720. The MEM 2712stores a program (PROG) 2714. The PROG 2714 may include instructionsthat, when executed on the associated processor 2711, enable theapparatus 2710 to operate in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure, for example to perform any of methods 2200, 2300, 2400, ortheir combinations. A combination of the at least one processor 2711 andthe at least one MEM 2712 may form processing means 2715 adapted toimplement various embodiments of the present disclosure.

The apparatus 2720 comprises at least one processor 2721, such as a DP,and at least one MEM 2722 coupled to the processor 2721. The apparatus2720 may further include a suitable TX/RX 2723 coupled to the processor2721, which may be operable for wireless communication with theapparatus 2710. The MEM 2722 stores a PROG 2724. The PROG 2724 mayinclude instructions that, when executed on the associated processor2721, enable the apparatus 2720 to operate in accordance with theembodiments of the present disclosure, for example to perform any ofmethods 100, 500, 1200 or their combinations. A combination of the atleast one processor 2721 and the at least one MEM 2722 may formprocessing means 2725 adapted to implement various embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented bycomputer program executable by one or more of the processors 2711, 2721,software, firmware, hardware or in a combination thereof

The MEMs 2712 and 2722 may be of any type suitable to the localtechnical environment and may be implemented using any suitable datastorage technology, such as semiconductor based memory devices, magneticmemory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixedmemory and removable memory, as non-limiting examples.

The processors 2711 and 2721 may be of any type suitable to the localtechnical environment, and may include one or more of general purposecomputers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signalprocessors DSPs and processors based on multicore processorarchitecture, as non-limiting examples.

In addition, the present disclosure may also provide a carriercontaining the computer program as mentioned above, wherein the carrieris one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, orcomputer readable storage medium. The computer readable storage mediumcan be, for example, an optical compact disk or an electronic memorydevice like a RAM (random access memory), a ROM (read only memory),Flash memory, magnetic tape, CD-ROM, DVD, Blue-ray disc and the like.

The techniques described herein may be implemented by various means sothat an apparatus implementing one or more functions of a correspondingapparatus described with an embodiment comprises not only prior artmeans, but also means for implementing the one or more functions of thecorresponding apparatus described with the embodiment and it maycomprise separate means for each separate function, or means that may beconfigured to perform two or more functions. For example, thesetechniques may be implemented in hardware (one or more apparatuses),firmware (one or more apparatuses), software (one or more modules), orcombinations thereof. For a firmware or software, implementation may bemade through modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) thatperform the functions described herein.

Exemplary embodiments herein have been described above with reference toblock diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods and apparatuses.It will be understood that each block of the block diagrams andflowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the blockdiagrams and flowchart illustrations, respectively, can be implementedby various means including computer program instructions. These computerprogram instructions may be loaded onto a general purpose computer,special purpose computer, or other programmable data processingapparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions which executeon the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus createmeans for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block orblocks.

While this specification contains many specific implementation details,these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of anyimplementation or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions offeatures that may be specific to particular embodiments of particularimplementations. Certain features that are described in thisspecification in the context of separate embodiments can also beimplemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, variousfeatures that are described in the context of a single embodiment canalso be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in anysuitable sub-combination. Moreover, although features may be describedabove as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed assuch, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some casesbe excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may bedirected to a sub-combination or variation of a sub-combination.

It will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that, as thetechnology advances, the inventive concept can be implemented in variousways. The above described embodiments are given for describing ratherthan limiting the disclosure, and it is to be understood thatmodifications and variations may be resorted to without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the disclosure as those skilled in the artreadily understand. Such modifications and variations are considered tobe within the scope of the disclosure and the appended claims. Theprotection scope of the disclosure is defined by the accompanyingclaims.

1-38. (canceled)
 39. A terminal comprising a processor configured to:transmit a 1st report; and drop a 2nd report based on a transmissionpriority of the 1st report and the 2nd report if the 1st report and the2nd report are colliding, wherein the transmission priority is in orderof semi-persistent report carrying L1-RSRP (Reference Signal ReceivedPower) on PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control CHannel), semi-persistent CSI(Channel State Information) report on PUCCH, periodic report carryingL1-RSRP on PUCCH, and periodic CSI report on PUCCH, wherein thesemi-persistent CSI report on PUCCH is different from thesemi-persistent report carrying L1-RSRP on PUCCH, wherein the periodicCSI report on PUCCH is different from the periodic report carryingL1-RSRP on PUCCH.
 40. A method comprising: transmitting a 1st report;and dropping a 2nd report based on a transmission priority of the 1streport and the 2nd report if the 1st report and the 2nd report arecolliding, wherein the transmission priority is in order ofsemi-persistent report carrying L1-RSRP (Reference Signal ReceivedPower) on PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control CHannel), semi-persistent CSI(Channel State Information) report on PUCCH, periodic report carryingL1-RSRP on PUCCH, and periodic CSI report on PUCCH, wherein thesemi-persistent CSI report on PUCCH is different from thesemi-persistent report carrying L1-RSRP on PUCCH, wherein the periodicCSI report on PUCCH is different from the periodic report carryingL1-RSRP on PUCCH.